Gtk+ Flexibility

[Richi Plana]

Hi,

I remember reading somewhere that the OpenMoko developers couldn't get
the actual apps to look exactly like the mock-ups their interface
designers made for them. I'm guessing there are limitations to what one
can do with gtk+ widgets. There was talk of shifting to Cairo instead to
render the UI objects.

As an academic discussion, I'd like to ask the devs what limitations
they came against that prohibited them from getting the exact image that
they were tasked to render. Would it make sense to extend the current
gtk widget set to allow for more accurate control of how they are
rendered (such that making phone emulators becomes possible with image
textures)? Could that system somehow be made a layer in between Cairo
and the current widget set abstraction?

My point in asking, I guess, is that I'm trying to figure out if a
concerted effort at such a layer would benefit all embedded device
projects that use Gtk as their UI library. I don't think gtk was
designed for use with apps that want skins, but I'm thinking it might be
a good idea to do so and make the current use of gtk widgets a user of
that subsystem.
--

Richi Plana